The latest meeting of the Quilt Group was embellished with pizza! That was a special treat that we could all relate to. Gina brought her latest quilt top--a colorful school of fishes in a blue ocean. We had a picture taken which I have some lost in the "cloud", so I can't show it to you. When It comes back from the quilter, I will take another picture for you. Sadly, once it is quilted you won't be able to see what a beautiful job Gina did in pressing her seams--something that I noticed while I was holding it up for the portrait. I would like to repeat an earlier phrase: "When it comes back from the quilter." Did you know that it is perfectly acceptable to send your quilts out to be finished? Sometimes people put off making a quilt because they know they will never have the time for basting the layers and quilting and binding. We don't let that worry us because there are professional long-arm quilters out there who do a wonderful job of finishing off our creations. Of course, if you are sure that you will someday find the time to quilt it yourself, I can give you some storage tips, and ways to rationalize the delay.
All the Barbaras had projects that are inching ever closer to completion, Sunny worked on a T-shirt quilt, and I think Rosalie was doing oven towels. I didn't take good notes, I'm afraid.
Janet gave an excellent demonstration--with examples--of two quilt-as-you-go techniques. This is another solution for those who can't face shoving a full-sized quilt through a domestic machine. Most techniques involve a bit of hand sewing, and in a future meeting I think I should demonstrate the modified ladder stitch that I love so much. Please don't worry: you will not be forced to participate. Honestly, if our grandmothers had been so averse to hand-sewing as this generation is, we would all be wearing animal skins held together with thorns.
Once again, I apologize for losing the photo, but I will continue to search for it. In the meantime, please remember that we sew on the third Saturday of every month at San Bernardino Sew/Vac & etc. (The 'etc.' means pizza)
Here are a couple of websites you might find interesting. Barbara Cortez found this site that has patterns for modern-looking quilts: http://www.psiquilt.com
Superior Threads sends out an infomative newsletter about threads, and their archives are available at their site: http://www.superiorthreads.com/newsletter/retail/subscribe/
